Although state law now mandates that high schools provide $3 million in catastrophic injury insurance over a five-year period to athletes, it provides no penalties for any schools that refuse.

Gov. Pat Quinn signed “Rocky’s Law” on Aug. 4 and it took effect in January, but area schools were signed up for the start of the 2013-14 school year in September. Or even earlier.

“Our insurance agency had contacted us, and we had things in place before the governor even had that signed,” Pecatonica Principal Todd France said.

“We had insurance on our athletes before that but not to the extent that is required now by law. It’s a pretty good idea. Look what’s going on with the NFL (with concussions). We worry about the safety of our students.”

Winnebago already had a policy in place. “That just reaffirmed why we did it,” said Athletic Director Will Hartje.

Rockford’s four high schools also jumped the gun — by 11 years — with a plan that covers students for $5 million.

“It’s more than the state wants, and it’s more than just student-athletes,” Rockford Athletic Director Mat Parker said of the insurance coverage that has been in effect since 2003. “If a student falls in the playground or hurts himself in a contest, we’ve got it all covered.

“We want to provide our best for our students across the board. I’m glad the governor is signing legislation like this to provide assistance to families, and I’m really happy that we go above and beyond that.”

There have been no catastrophic claims against Rockford’s policy the last three years. Records before that did not separate catastrophic claims from other claims.

Rochelle has also carried a policy that covered all students for several years.

“It’s in everybody’s best interests if there is a way to economically cover some kind of catastrophic injury, especially something that required long-term care like paralysis,” said Rochelle Athletic Director and football coach Kevin Crandall. “I certainly feel a lot better as a coach and athletic director knowing that if, God forbid, someone got paralyzed, there would be a way to make sure they would be taken care of, without having to go through lawsuits.

“Considering the way medical costs have escalated, this is probably more needed than ever.”

Athletes still have to sign a waiver saying they have their own insurance, or buy insurance from the school, for non-catastrophic injury coverage.

Page 2 of 3 - Rockford pays $149,000 for mandatory student accident insurance at its 49 schools and $30,000 for catastrophic insurance when the other insurance runs out. Belvidere pays $60,000 to cover students at its two high schools and two middle schools. Harlem pays $44,000 as part of the same insurance co-op with Belvidere.

“It’s not a bad idea at all, but we have to figure out a way to pay for it,” said Belvidere Chief Financial Officer Greg Brown. “When you are on a fixed budget and get another set of numbers, you have to figure out where else you can chip away to pay for it.

“We reduced the number of some of the tournaments we went to, tried to get a little smarter on spending for athletic supplies, and if we had low numbers for a sport, maybe we didn’t fill all the assistant coaching positions. We cobbled everything together to cover it.”

Brown said Belvidere did have a catastrophic insurance policy in place when Belvidere North senior Heriberto Avila had his left leg amputated after a freak wrestling injury three years ago but said the new policy is “much more comprehensive.”

Belvidere principal Todd Martens, who went to Michigan on a football scholarship, said the bigger and faster athletes get, the more schools need catastrophic insurance.

“We’re getting better and better at building athletes,” Martens said. “When I was in school, we didn’t have all this equipment. I had to go to college to get that type of expertise. Now I hear stories of 6-, 7- and 8-year-olds doing this stuff. I was relatively fast when I was in high school. Now I would be relatively slow. When you have 300-pound players running 5-second 40-yard dashes, the hits are exponentially harder.

“There is only so much money in the pot, but when students play sports, there are bound to be some injuries, and I support kids being taken care of.”

There was some worry in the beginning that the legislation could be hard on smaller schools with smaller budgets, but they also wound up with smaller costs.

“It raised our premiums a little, but if it’s going to protect the students in the long run, it’s great for the district,” said Michael Schiffman, superintendent for Dakota, a high school of 275 students.

Eastland pays $900 to cover its 209 students.

“At first, we were unsure, but as we looked into it and saw the cost, $900 isn’t that much to protect the kids,” Eastland Superintendent Monica Burkholder said. “If you can cover kids so the burden isn’t placed directly on them, it’s a real benefit for the kids and their families.”